Curated for your stage · Updated June 2026The short list of MicroConf resources for past-validation founders.
Your company is growing… and now the job is changing underneath you. At $100K to $1M ARR, the work shifts from doing everything yourself to building the team and systems that do it without you: first managers, not just first hires; repeatable growth instead of heroics; and the questions starting about whether you want to raise, sell, or keep compounding. That's where MicroConf comes in.
Here's everything in our network built for folks at your level.
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17,743
1-2
founders on the listemails per week90+
countries reachedlisten · Startups for the rest of us Advice and information aimed at your level from the longest-running bootstrapped SaaS podcast.
Rob Walling, MicroConf’s co-founder, has hosted Startups For The Rest Of Us since 2010. If you're past $1M ARR, you've already figured out the stuff most founders are still stuck on. Hiring people more experienced than you, deciding whether to raise, figuring out if you actually want to sell — the problems all get harder from here.
Selected episodes of SFTROU we think you should listen to:
How to Find, Hire, and Work with Owner-Level Thinkers
Rob Walling · March 2026 · 31:47
How to Delegate as a Perfectionist, SaaS Partnerships, Planning Your Next Quarter
with Derrick Reimer (founder, SavvyCal) · March 2026 · 31:47
Lessons From 10 Years of SaaS Growth Without a Hockey Stick
with Colin Bartlett (founder, StatusGator) · April 2026 · 42:29
→ 15M+ downloads.
→ 800+ episodes.
Hosted by Rob Walling since 2010
watch · MicroConf + robwalling YouTubeConference talks and interviews for growth-stage founders
@MicroConf
Our newer channel posting recordings from recent events. At your stage, the most useful ones are the scaling-team talks, durable-growth playbooks, and interviews with founders who recently crossed $1M.
@RobWalling
Rob's personal channel, and right where you're operating now. His deep-dives on hiring, building your first management layer, and growth that compounds without you map straight onto the builder-to-leader shift between $100K and $1M ARR.
Every MicroConf talk we've recorded is on YouTube, plus interviews and content from Rob's channel. These three are where we'd send a founder at your stage first:
Exit Data · State of indie SaaS reportWhat does running a real bootstrapped business actually look like?
Every few years, we survey hundreds of bootstrapped founders about revenue, team size, churn, and what's working. At your stage, the State of Indie SaaS reports show you what scaling actually looks like around team size, growth levers, and the path other founders took to $1M.
44%
run teams of 2–5 people, and another 17% have grown to 6–10.
2024 State of Indie SaaS, p.16 — Number of employees (including founder)
26%
companies with full-time founders grow 2.2x faster than those with part-time founders; developer-led teams grow 1.7x faster.
2024 State of Indie SaaS, p.45 — Founder types vs. growth
2.2x
of founders planning to hire are hiring for engineering and development, followed by marketing and sales (both 38%).
2024 State of Indie SaaS, p.19 — Top roles being hired
58%
targeting enterprise customers correlates with the fastest month-over-month growth (~27%), versus single digits for SMB and consumer.
2024 State of Indie SaaS, p.21 — Growth rates by ideal customer type
These are benchmarks across all 469 surveyed independent SaaS founders, not the $100K–1M ARR band specifically. Data collected late 2023; refresh when the next report is released.
Read · rob Walling's books Rob Walling co-founded MicroConf and TinySeed, and before that he bootstrapped and sold his own SaaS (Drip.com, you might have heard of it!). He's written the books he wishes he'd had when he was starting out.
The problems you're working through now (building a team, deciding whether to sell, what your company is actually worth) are the ones he's written about from experience. Start with these two:
The same person who built MicroConf wrote the playbooks
Rob Walling The full guide to bootstrapping a SaaS, covering pricing, positioning, hiring, marketing channels and more. The second half is the most relevant to scaling founders, covering building teams, fixing bottlenecks, and avoiding founder burnout.
sherry walling, Phd and Rob Walling Thinking about selling in a few years (or less)? This boo covers what selling actually looks like, when to start preparing, what makes a business sellable, and what founders wish they'd known. Today's decisions shape what's possible later.
find your peers · microconf private communityNetwork and problem-solve with current bootstrapped and indie founders
Every MicroConf conference recording, private Connect-only events, local meetups, and a multi-topic forum. All hosted on Circle.
The questions you're working through (when to add your first management layer, how to find a growth channel that compounds, whether to take outside capital to accelerate, how to get out of being the bottleneck on every decision) are questions the typical SaaS advice skips right over. The founders who can actually answer them are the ones a step or two ahead of you.
MicroConf Connect is our private community of bootstrapped SaaS founders, with a strong cohort in the $100K–1M ARR range, plus the operators who've recently crossed $1M and remember exactly how they did it. All applications are hand-vetted by the MicroConf team.
$49
/month, or $499/year
“I’ve gotten more actionable advice in Connect than I ever expected — it’s like having a mastermind group on demand.”
— Josh, SaaS founder & Launchpad alum
MicroConf Mastermind MatchingA mastermind is a small group of founders at similar stages who meet regularly to work through what each of them is building. At $100K–1M ARR, the pull is less about accountability and more about judgment: a few other operators running companies your size, thinking out loud about the same calls you're making (such as the first management hire, the channel bet, when to push price, whether to take capital, etc.) so you're not making them in isolation.
The MicroConf Mastermind Matching Program pairs you with founders at your stage and in compatible time zones, so you don't have to find them yourself.
A small group of peers running companies your size.
Next matching session starts in Fall 2026; join the waitlist to be notified when applications open.
tinyseed early-stage SaaS accelerator program
Capital and a community for the next stage of growth.
TinySeed is our year-long remote accelerator and funding program for B2B SaaS founders, built specifically for bootstrappers who want capital without going the venture capital route.
The program pairs $120K–$220K in funding with a year of structured support: mentorship from people like Jason Fried, Joanna Wiebe, and April Dunford, biweekly mastermind groups with other funded founders, in-person retreats, and access to a portfolio network of funded SaaS companies.
The terms are founder-friendly: 10–12% equity, no fixed revenue or profit share, dividends only when you decide to pay them, and no pressure to sell.
$120-220K USD investment
Operating since 2019
Year-long program
Over 200 companies backed
Mentors include Rand Fishkin (Sparktoro), Jason Fried and DHH (Basecamp), April Dunford (Obviously Awesome), Hiten Shah (CrazyEgg), Jordan Gal (Carthook, Rally), and more.
“Joining TinySeed is one of the best decisions I've made for the future of the company. The community, mentors, and support we got during our year-long program was invaluable to us.”
Craig Hewitt, founder of Castos
Come together · MicroConf flagship conferences2.5 days in-person with bootstrapped and indie founders across the spectrum
MicroConf events are intentionally small (a few hundred bootstrapped founders, no enterprise sales reps, no VCs hunting for deals). At your stage, the value is being in the room with founders running companies your size making the same scaling calls you are, alongside future friends who recently crossed $1M and remember the journey. Join us for the friendliest bootstrapped SaaS conference ever.
upcoming:
September 21-23, 2026MicroConf Europe 2026: Reykjavik, Iceland
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